Hoshino H, Tanaka H, Miwa M, Okada H
Nature. 1984;310(5975):324-5. doi: 10.1038/310324a0.
Retroviruses isolated from avian, feline, murine and simian sources have been found to be inactivated and lysed by normal human serum. There is much evidence that complement is activated directly by retroviruses in the absence of antibody. Thus, human complement is thought to function as a natural defence mechanism against horizontal infection by retroviruses. Recently, a novel retrovirus, human T-cell leukaemia virus (HTLV), has been shown to be associated with adult T-cell leukaemia/lymphoma (ATL). A large number of healthy adults in south-west Japan, the West Indies and Africa carry antibodies against HTLV and these seropositive individuals are considered to be carriers of HTLV. Thus, horizontal spread of HTLV occurs frequently among humans. We set out to determine whether HTLV reacts with human complement, and report here that, unlike other animal retroviruses, HTLV is not lysed by normal human serum--this might explain the infectivity and persistence of HTLV in humans.
已发现从禽类、猫科、鼠科和灵长类动物中分离出的逆转录病毒会被正常人血清灭活并裂解。有大量证据表明，在没有抗体的情况下，逆转录病毒可直接激活补体。因此，人类补体被认为是抵御逆转录病毒水平感染的一种天然防御机制。最近，一种新型逆转录病毒——人类T细胞白血病病毒（HTLV），已被证明与成人T细胞白血病/淋巴瘤（ATL）有关。在日本西南部、西印度群岛和非洲，大量健康成年人携带抗HTLV抗体，这些血清阳性个体被认为是HTLV携带者。因此，HTLV在人类中经常发生水平传播。我们着手确定HTLV是否与人类补体发生反应，并在此报告，与其他动物逆转录病毒不同，HTLV不会被正常人血清裂解——这可能解释了HTLV在人类中的传染性和持续性。
